“The data is recorded much more
continuously than the ‘spot-checks’ that
are done in a hospital setting or doctor’s
visit,” said van Gils. “They thus reflect
a more elaborate view of the patient in
real-life, and if there are changes, they can
be detected quickly. Additionally, essential
things issues like stress/relaxation, sleep
habits and quality can be observed. These
all help to portray an overall picture of the
patient, that, combined with the data that
we have traditionally measured in the professional care setting, will give us a more
accurate and personalized view of each
individual patient,” he concluded.

Smartphones = Smart Care

Both the Connected Healthcare and
Health IT Forums explored the growing
role of Smartphones and tablets as platforms for connected healthcare services.

Equipped with high-speed wireless connectivity, abundant, well-supported computing
resources, and high-resolution displays,
mobile devices can be used as terminals
for specialized patient care and diagnostic
applications, or as a low-cost, user-friendly
user interface for medical equipment. Some
of the Smartphone-powered products on
display at MEDICA included a low-cost ultrasonic imaging system, a blood pressure/
heart rate monitor, and a “smart” insulin
pump that connected to a cloud-based
application that records patients’ dosing
history and anticipates future needs.

Smartphone technology also played a
key role in MEDICA’s live competition
for the best App-based Medical Mobile
Solution, held during the Connected
Healthcare Forum. The competition’s
goal was to encourage the development
of applications that could improve some
aspect of healthcare in the daily routine of
a patient, a doctor or a hospital.

The 15 finalists who demonstratedtheir entries that day were the winners ofa lengthy qualification process that hadbegun much earlier this year. The threewinning entries were remarkably diversein their function and intended user basebut they all featured well-designed userinterfaces that delivered personalizedservices which would be impractical orimpossible to duplicate on a conventionalplatform.

The 1st place prize was awarded to
iSikCure ( http://www.isikcure.com/), a
“mobile health information exchange”that
allows users on the African continent
to locate, engage, and pay for health
services and medicines. iSikCure functions
as a specialized social media platform,
that enables clients to checka doctor’s
credentials and client reviews before they
engage their services. The app also offers
e-commerce functions similar to TripAd-visor and Amazon for scheduling care and
buying medicines. iSikCure enables its
subscribers to pre-pay participating care
providers several different ways, including
cash, mobile money, credit card, insurance, or an e-wallet. Users can also pay
with“MedCoin credits,” which they earn
by adhering to the treatment that was
prescribed for them.

Second place was awarded to NuvoAir’s Air Smart Spirometer (www.
nuvoair.com). The low-cost device can be
connected to a Smartphone, enabling clinicians to remotely monitorand diagnose
a patient’s lung functionin real time. The
device also shares its data with a web-based phone app that displays both the
current readings and trends. NuvoAir says
their spirometer can also be used to gather
real-time anonymous patient outcomes for
epidemiology, HEOR, pharmacovigilance,
or other types of studies.

Figure 3: Nuovo Air’s Smart spirometer.(Image courtesy of Nuovo Air)

The Kaia back pain therapy app took
3rd place in the competition (www.
kaia-health.com). Its developers claim that
it is the first holistic digital back pain
therapy program to include a personalized mind-body program. The app
helps users manage their back pain with
a 15-minute daily multimodal exercise
program. This alternative to drugs or
surgical procedures has demonstrated
promising results, with one retrospective
study showing an average reduction of
pain levels by 43 percent within the first
20 days.

Data-Driven Surgery

Data-Driven Medicine is also revolutionizing how surgery is planned
and executed, primarily through the
increasing uses of operating room
(OR) integration and surgical analytics. OR integration systems have been
available for several years, which give
surgical teams displays that combine
live images, patient vitals and procedure planning information in an easy
to assimilate format. Now, companies
like Caresyntax ( https://caresyntax.com)
are going one step further with surgical
analytics solutions that converge Io T
technology with healthcare analytics
that provide surgical teams with deep
insights on their patients, the procedures they are executing, and the
overall workflow before, during and
after the operation.

Caresyntax used a simulated surgical
suite on MEDICA’s show floor to
demonstrate Qvident, the company’s
web-based performance management
platform. It can manage, record, and
analyze any mix of video, checklists,
images, vitals data, surgical risk calculators and other forms. It also automates
most of the tasks involved with clinical
documentation and reporting. Qvident’s
surgical analytics and root-cause identification capabilities allow teams to
reconstruct intraoperative events using
a continuously synchronized record of
key real-time surgical data to identify
factors that contributed to an adverse
event, or reduced efficiency. MDT